I found myself compelled to contribute to a discussion in an online automotive aftermarket forum a few months ago: Someone had asked the group how they could activate a young audience – that seems to only want the expensive custom cars seen in music videos and movies – to become aftermarket consumers. An industry executive (a Baby Boomer, judging by his avatar photo) chimed in with something to the effect of, “Tell ’em to go buy a used car and start working on it, like I did.” That brief exchange spoke volumes about the collector car industry right now: The Baby Boomer generation is largely populating the decision-making roles, the implementers are a section of Generation X-ers who are not considered early-adopters, and neither of them have a clue as to how to talk to the valuable youth market they all know they need to engage – a group, by the way, that isn’t even involved in the discussion.

Fourteen years into the new millennium, nobody living and working within the collector car universe needs to be told that we’re experiencing what we in the media politely refer to as the “graying of the hobby.” And while gray hair is certainly nothing to be ashamed of – we tend to cling to it more, the whiter it gets – what gives us pause, what makes those of us who rely on the fascination with old cars worry about, is that the old guys might not be replaced with youngsters who will carry the torch and take their place one day as the Old Guys, and so forth and so on.

We’re in a unique position in this collector car universe right this minute: The crowd that came up with the very idea of a “collector car” is still with us, while an entirely new generation of gearheads largely ignores it. Less of a damn just couldn’t be given by the youngest-slash-newest on the spectrum, while we’re losing more of the originators by the month on the other end.

And, truth be told, the only time our Old Guys give those young souls out there much more than a passing “Bah…” is when they wonder why nobody stops by to pick up a wrench, or contemplate what might happen to the collection they’ve invested so much sweat and equity into after they’re gone. But to find oneself on the center point of that spectrum is a pretty exciting place to be.

The middle. I’m not an old guy yet, but I consider Old Guys “hella legit,” as the kids say. At the same time, that 23-year-old – the one rolling the lowered Honda with the bolt-on muffler and chrome tip courtesy of the accessories aisle at Pep Boys – is old enough to be my son. Technically.

And from here, I love what’s happening all across the collector car spectrum. I’m a member of what’s referred to these days by marketing think tanks as the “Youth Mode” generation: We don’t identify with what’s generally accepted as the standards of our actual age, as much as we identify with the cultural movements we value.

When my dad was 44, he was considered middle-aged, he was the father of two teens, was halfway through the mortgage on the house, had a few cars in the driveway and was just starting to think about what he was going to do in 20 years when he was ready to retire from the school district he had dedicated two of my own lifetimes to by that point.

Now, at that same age, I look down at my own feet and realize that I’m wearing the same brand of sneakers I wore 20 years ago, which also happens to be the same shoe the 14 year-old kid down the street with the skateboard is wearing. And we both wear them for the same cultural statement they make. That’s an example of living in Youth Mode: simultaneously respecting the responsibilities of middle-age and the energetic power of youth.

So, here we are at this crucial point in the collector car continuum: The originators are a quickly-diminishing group, and the newest a) don’t seem to realize they’re losing a valuable resource and knowledge base in them and b) are creating their own interpretation of what the Old Guys created for them so many years ago.

What does that look like in the real world? Well, it means that important, private car collections are being auctioned off instead of being passed to the next generations to privately curate. It also means that a beautiful tradition of the mastery of the mechanical world is quickly being lost (as addressed in works like Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class As Soulcraft). It means that kids who are participating in the migration back to urban centers find more value in experiences than pride of ownership – they’re more inclined to use their smartphones to organize and attend a giant party at the beach than figure out how to buy and restore a classic car that could literally and figuratively become the vehicle for such great experiences.

But I contend that all is not lost. I believe that our position in the middle requires that we become the bridge between two ends of the collector car spectrum that, for a host of reasons, don’t talk to each other.

Remember that skateboard culture I mentioned earlier? Yeah, well my generation – the Youth Mode – created that. And when professional skateboarder Max Schaaf so eloquently described the embrace of Sixties and Seventies-era “chopper” motorcycles by the industry he came from as “the retirement program for old pro skaters,” he put a name to what I think has the potential to be the bridge that will preserve what came before us and protect the future of the industry – nay, way of life.

The Youth Mode generation can boast that it applied the Do-It-Yourself tenets of the early Punk Rock and Street Art movement it came from (in the Eighties) to collectible old tin – be it motorcycles or hot rods or lowriders or customs or vintage trucks – but the motivating factor was accessibility and low price-of-entry. Not too different from the motivations of the early car collectors just after WWII, albeit with different interpretations of value. While those first collectors were interested in restoration and preservation, the members of Generation X and Generation Y are as interested in customization and creating statements of personalization.

So, what do we do to ensure that the collector car pond is periodically restocked long after we go belly up? The answer lies somewhere between showing respect for both the interests and motivations of that 23 year-old and the knowledge base of the surviving first-gen car collectors.

It ain’t gonna be easy to get them both in the same room at the same time, but as the living bridge, it’s up to my generation to actively participate as story-teller, ambassador, cultural attaché, archivist, creator, curator and mentor. In the future, will the last remaining Hispano-Suizas and Iso Grifos of the world be relegated to museums like Fabergé eggs? Maybe. Will boattail Rivieras and Laguna S3s become the darlings of concours events to come? If you look at the pattern of collectibility, that’s not a hard idea to embrace.

One of the major defining aspects of a burgeoning Gen-X and Gen-Y-as-collectors movement is the practice of tying a car’s value directly to its representation of a cultural movement. That boattail Riviera is more valuable as a period-correct lowrider with a custom “circuit-board” paint job and 100-spoke gold-plated Dayton wheels than a factory restoration. That AMF-era Harley sportster is worth more as a chopper built by Brandon Casquilho over at Mullins Chain Drive in Richmond, California, because of his contributions as a writer, BMX frame fabricator and Instagram star, as much as his obvious talents as a chopper builder.

All that stuff matters to Gen-Xers and Yers. And the DNA woven through a bike coming out of his shop has intrinsic value that can’t be realized any other way. Not unlike the value of the patina in Native American silver jewelry only acquired by wearing it or the organic imperfections of handmade Japanese swords.

Make or Hack, it really boils down to the central theme of modifying and/or building something to fit one’s personal tastes and values. And whether it’s website code, a motherboard, a can of paint and a bare wall, a vintage Puch moped, a pair of jeans, a Stromberg carburetor or a ’29 Model A roadster, the value for Gen-Xs and Gen-Ys comes in the experience those physical things help produce.

As long as we can foster their participation in the collector car world on their terms, the DNA of the industry, nay, way of life will never be threatened.

125 Responses to “What Generations X, Y, and beyond will make of the old car hobby”

Doug the auctions are not the real pulse of the hobby, check the Hagerty price index cars fro the 30s and 40s dropping and 50s cars now flat, these guys have aged out of the hobby
the 60s will be next, these Mecum and Barret Jackson bidders have more money than sense, people buy want they had or wanted in there youth its ass simple as that, I have a 72 Vette young guys I know could care less they think its cool but dont like cars or are interested in new hot turbo models. Who can blame them. The next cars to come up will be the 80s models which i grew up with.